Arctic Airlift – Join us at the top of the world for literacy

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MagazineLiteracy.org, Comics for Heroes, & Reading with Pictures join forces for International Literacy Day Arctic Airlift to get Comics and Magazines to Inuit Schools and Families at the top of the World

Madison, WI—MagazineLiteracy.org, Comics for Heroes, and Reading with Pictures are celebrating International Literacy Day at the top of the world this year by joining forces to collect comics and magazines for Inuit schools and families north of the Arctic Circle. The “Arctic Airlift for Literacy” will get comics donated by consumers at comic book stores in the United States and magazines collected in the U.S. and Canada to schools for Inuit families in Kugluktuk, Taloyoak, Gjoa Haven, Kugaaruk, and Cambridge Bay, Canada. International Literacy Day is a global United Nations event held each year on September 8th. Comic shops can register now for comic collections at their stores through the end of October – Children’s Magazine Month.

The Inuit Population of the Canadian Arctic, totaling over 30,000, have inhabited their land for thousands of years, and, along with a very rich oral tradition, are very artistic. The official languages of the Inuit are Inuktitut, Inuinaqtunn, and English. The comics and magazines were requested by school leaders to promote literacy for young people in remote regions, where it is difficult to acquire reading materials.

“We are all citizens of the world,” said John Mennell, founder of MagazineLiteracy.org. Freedom and prosperity depend on literacy and collaboration – these are universal ideals, and comics and magazines are especially powerful reading resources. The volunteers and the companies who collect and fund comics and magazines for literacy are our superheroes,” he added.

Comics for Heroes and Reading with Pictures will organize comic book collections at store locations across the United States.

“This is an ambitious project and the largest undertaking by Comics For Heroes, to date,” explained founder Brian Willis. “We are dedicated to getting as many comics as possible to the Inuit people. We are launching a campaign to collect donated comics specifically for this purpose, as well as to fund the packaging and shipping of the comics to northern Canada. We will target social media, comic retailers, publishers, comic related news, and media outlets to gather as much support as possible for this project,” he added.

“The comic format is a universal language that speaks to all people, everywhere,” said Josh Elder, founder of Reading With Pictures. “Comics nurture visual literacy while providing a support structure of images to enhance textual literacy, as well. Reading With Pictures is proud to support this project and to help bring high-quality comics and graphic novels to the Inuit people.”

Comics For Heroes’ mission is to get comics to those who aren’t able to get them on their own, and use comics as tools to promote literacy, education, and make a difference. Comics For Heroes’ encourages people to pick up comics for the first time, and to help spread the word about the good that comics can do. The organization gets donated comics to troops overseas, and to kids in schools, children’s hospitals, and other places where they can make a difference.

Reading With Pictures was founded in 2009 by award-winning graphic novelist and nationally syndicated cartoonist Josh Elder in order to revolutionize the role of comics in education.

Reading With Pictures promotes comics as engaging, efficient and effective educational tools for the classroom, and has set out to share the power of comics with pupils in every school.

MagazineLiteracy.org gets new and recycled magazines to at-risk children and families via literacy programs, with community volunteers and crowdfunded by consumers and businesses via the online Magazine Literacy Marketplace. The Inuit initiative will be supplied with magazines collected by the Duffy family, our ambassadors for the project in Canada, with logistics provided by the Mid-Range Computer Group Inc., located in Markham, Ontario. Leading that effort, along with Dan and Beth Duffy, are their two children, Eddie and Rachel, who are organizing magazine drives for the Inuit families in their community and school.

School
Loogootee, IN
Serving male and female students from kindergarten to third grade.
Needs: Enough magazines for 1-20 low level readers and 1-20 medium level readers from the months of August through June.

Technoviz is an experienced IT service provider helping to lead the development and delivery of our automated global magazine literacy marketplace that matches community literacy needs with new and recycled magazines for new readers.